Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-08-31
down with emotion by the time they got to
the second line:

down with emotion by the time they got tt
the second line:
Ashamed of Jesus. that dear friend
On whom my hopes of heaven depend?
No! When blush. be this my shame;
That no more revere His name."
Again, I remark that +" we are witnesses
OF the Gospels power to comfort.
When man has trouble the world comel
in and says: sNow get your mind. off this
60 out and breathe the fresh air; plunge
deeper into business" What poor advice
Get your mind off of it when everything is
upturned with the bereavement, and every.
thing reminds you of what you have lost
IGet yonr mind off of it! They might as
not stop thinking, and you cannot stop
thinking in that direction. Take walk in
the fresh air! Why, along that very street,
or that very road, she once accompanied
you. Out. of that grassplot she plucked
flowers, or into that show window she look.
ed, fascinated, saying: "Come see the pic.
tures." Go deeper into business! Why,
she was associated with all your business
ambition, and since she has gone you have
no ambition left.
| Oh, this is clumsy world when it tries
to comfort broken heart l can build a
Corliss engine, I can paint Raphaers
| madonna )" 1 can play Beethoven's
s'symphony" as easily as this world can
comfort broken heart. And yet you have
been comforted. How was it done? Did
Christ come to you and say, sect your
mind off this; 90 out and breathe the fresh
air; plunge deeper into business ?" No.
There was minute when He came to you
perhaps in the watches of the night, per-
haps in your place of business, perhaps
along the street-and He breathed some
| thing into your soul that gave peace, rest,
infinite quiet, so that you could take out
the photograph of the departed one and
look into the eyes and the face of the dear
one and say, cit is all right she is better
off; would not call her back. Lord, l
thank Thee that Thou hast comforted my
poor heart"
There are Christian parents here who are
willing to testify to the power of this gos-
pei to comfort. Your son had just gradu-
ated from school or college and was going
into business and the Lord took him. Or
your daughter had just graduated from
the young ladies' seminary, and you
thought she was going to be useful woman
and of long life; but the Lord took her,
culture of twenty years for nothing" Or
the little child came home from school with
the hot fever that stopped not for the
agonized prayer or for the skillful physi-
clans, and the little child was taken. Or
the babe was lifted out of your arms by
some qnick epidemic, and you stood wan
dering why God ever gave you that child at
all, if SO soon He was to take it away. And
yet you are not repining, you are not fret
full, you art not fighting against God.
What has enabled you to stand all the
trial? ''Oh," you say, 81 took the medicine
that God gave my sick soul. In my dis
tress threw myself at the feet of sympa-
thizing God; and when ] was too weak to
pray or to look up, He breathed into me a
peace that think must be the foretaste of
that heaven where there is neither a tear,
nor a farewell, nor grave" Come, all ye
who have been out to the grave to weep
there-come, all ye comforted souls, get up
off your knees. Is there no power in this
gospel to soothe the heart? Is there no
power in this religion to quiet the worst
paroxysm of griefs There comes up an
answer from comforted widowhood, and
orphanage, and childishness, saying: "Aye,
aye, we are witnesses"
Again, I remark that we are witnesses of
the fact that religion has power to give
composure in the last moment. l shall
never forget the first time I confronted
death. We went across the cornfields in
the country. I was led by my fathers
hand and we came to the farm house where
the bereavement had come, and we saw the
crowd of wagons and carriages; but there
was one carriage that especially attracted
my boyish attention, and it had black
ftV 81,
that? Why those black tassels at the top?"
And, after it was explained to me, was
lifted up to look upon the bright face of an
fore had departed in triumph. The whole
scene made an impression I never forgot.
In our sermons and in our lay exhorta-
tions we are very apt, when we want to
bring illustrations of dying triumph, to go
back to some distinguished personage-to a
John Knox or Harriet Newell. But
want you for witnesses.
| want to know if you have ever seen
anything to make you believe that the re-
ligion of Christ can give composure in the
| final hour. Now, in the courts, attorney,
Jury, and judge will never admit mere
| hearsay. They demand that the witness
must have seen with his own eyes, or heard
with his own ears, and so l am critical in
my examination of you now and l want
to know whether you have seen or heard
anything that makes you believe that the
religion of Christ gives composure in the
| fipal hour.
ooh, yes," you say, 81 saw my father
and mother depart There was great diff
ference in their death-beds. Standing by
the one we felt more veneration. By the
other, there was more tenderness" Be-
fore the one, you bowed perhaps in ave.
| In the other case you felt as if you would
like to go along with her. How did they
feel in that last hour? How did they seem
to act? We're they very much frightened
Did they take hold of this world with both
hands as though they did not want to give
it up2 ooh, no." you say ''no, l remem-
Der, as though it were yesterday she had
kind word for us all, and there were a
few mementoes distributed among the
children, and then she told US how kind we
must be to our father in his loneliness, and
then she kissed us good bye and went asleep
as child in cradle"
What made her SO composed? Natural
courage? ftNo," you say, ''mother was
yery nervous when the carriage inclined
to the side of the road she would cry out
she was always rather weakly" What
GQSD, SdVO uOA OOhPOouAO1 ''"S ~ oSoes~s>
she did not care much for you, and the
pang of parting was not great? "Oh,' :
YOU say, "she showered upon us wealth
of affection no mother ever loved he
children more than mother loved us /; sh'
showed it by the way she nursed us wheI
we were sick, and she toiled for us unit
her strength gave OUT What. then, wa
} it that gave her composure in the las
J hour? DO not hide it. Be frank and le
, me know. "Oh," you say, SGT was be
cause she was so good she made the Lore
her portion, and she had faith that sh'
would go straight to glory, and that vi
should all meet her at last at the foot o
the throne"
) Here are people who say: 81 saw Chris
tian brother die, and he triumphed." Ant
some one else: 81 saw Christian siste
} die. and she triumphed." Some one els
will say: 81 saw Christian daughter die
: and she triumphed." Come, all ye VIII
, have seen the last moments of a Christion
! and give testimony in this cause on trial
Uncover your heads. put your hand on th'
old family Bible from which they used t.
rood the nromises and promise in the pres